The present invention relates to a body of a railway car traveling on rails, preferably a railway car body composed of extruded hollow members made of light alloy.
Upon designing a rail way car, the manufacturer must consider how to absorb and ease the impact force loaded to the passengers on board when collision occurs. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Provisional Publication No. H7-186951 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,757) discloses absorbing the energy generated by the impact of the collision loaded to the front end of the leading car by the deformation thereof. This shock absorber is composed of elements, honeycomb panels and the like that constitute triangular shapes within a plane perpendicular to the direction of impact. A plural number of relievers is positioned either in parallel relations to the direction of impact or linearly along the direction of impact.
A welding method called friction stir welding is proposed as a means to weld members, which can be applied to manufacturing railway cars. This method is taught in Japanese Patent No. 3014654 (EP 0797043 A2).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Provisional Publication No. H11-51103 reports that by friction stir welding members, the metal constitution of the friction-stir-welded portion becomes refined, and the energy absorption capability is thereby improved.
According to the disclosure, friction stir welding is performed to the extruded hollow members made of aluminum alloy in either a ring-like or spiral-like manner, the welded member being utilized as the steering shaft of an automobile. Friction stir welding is performed in the direction perpendicular to the orientation of the impact energy, and the friction-stir-welded portion absorbs the impact force. Moreover, multiple short pipe-like members are arranged linearly along the direction of impact energy, and these members are friction-stir-welded to form a shaft.
The above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open Provisional Publication No. H7-186951 (U.S. Pat No. 5,715,757) proposes a shock reliever equipped to a railway car for absorbing the impact when collision occurs. This shock reliever is composed of multiple relieving devices, ensuring the safety of the passengers on board.
Since the shock reliever is provided to the railway car body, the length of the reliever should preferably be as short as possible so as to secure enough space for the passengers.
The present invention aims at providing a railway car that is capable of absorbing a large amount of impact energy.
The above object is realized by
forming the members constituting the ends of the direction of travel of the car body with shock absorbers;
said shock absorber composed of plural extruded members having plural hollow portions disposed so that the direction of extrusion of the extruded members are arranged toward the longitudinal direction of the car body; and
a partition plate is disposed in the longitudinal middle portion of the extruded members, enabling the extruded members to deform into concertinas (accordion-like form) when collision occurs.